The widow of an unarmed man who was shot and killed outside his hotel room last year by an Arizona police officer is speaking out on Wednesday.

Laney Sweet gave her first interview to the news media since the former cop who shot her husband, 26-year-old Daniel Shaver, was acquitted of murder charges by a jury in Maricopa County last week.

‘I've been fighting for two years and screaming,’ Sweet told CBS News.

‘Finally, now, it took people watching my husband die a very horrible inhumane death for people to care.’

Philip Mitchell Brailsford, 27, was found not guilty in the 2016 death of 26-year-old father-of-two Shaver, from Granbury, Texas.

The shooting, which Shaver's family has referred to as an 'execution,' occurred in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa when officers were responding to a call that someone was pointing a gun out a window at the La Quinta Hotel.

Laney Sweet gave her first interview to the news media since the former cop who shot her husband, 26-year-old Daniel Shaver, was acquitted of murder charges by a jury in Maricopa County last week

The shooting occurred in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa when officers were responding to a call that someone was pointing a gun out a window at the La Quinta Hotel. Shaver is pictured with his two daughters

Sweet and Shaver's parents have filed wrongful-death lawsuits against the city of Mesa over the shooting death. Shaver's family's lawyer Mark Geragos described the shooting as 'an execution pure and simple. ' Shaver, Sweet and their two children are all pictured

Police told Shaver to exit his hotel room, lay face-down in a hallway and refrain from making sudden movements - or he risked being shot.

New disturbing footage of the encounter shows the moment Shaver, sobbing and crawling towards the officer, audibly begs 'please don't kill me,' before Brailsford opens fire and shoots him dead.

Authorities did not permit the public to view footage of the incident for two full years before it was finally unsealed last week after the verdict.

‘It was an execution,’ Sweet said. ‘You had a man begging for his life, and he was shot five times for what? For his elbow coming up too high? For being confused? For being compliant? Why did he deserve to die? He didn't.

Philip Mitchell Brailsford, 27, was found not guilty in the 2016 death of Shaver, from Granbury, Texas. Brailsford is pictured in court on October 25 at the start of the murder trial

Sweet is seen above arriving at Maricopa County Superior Court with attorney Mark Geragos, right, for the opening statements in Brailsford's murder trial. On Thursday she shook her head 'no' after the jury's decision and said she wasn't going to answer any questions

‘I just don't understand how anybody could watch that video and then say, “not guilty,” that this is justified that Daniel deserved this, and that Philip Brailsford doesn't deserve to be held accountable for his actions,’ Sweet said.

In the video Shaver can be seen sobbing and lying on the ground as he starts to inch himself forward.

As he was slowly moving he pauses for a moment to reach toward the waistband of his shorts. Brailsford said he fired his AR-15 because he believed Shaver was grabbing a handgun in his waistband.

While no gun was found on Shaver's body, two pellet rifles related to his pest-control job were later found in his room.

During his trial testimony, Brailsford described the stress that he faced in responding to the call and his split-second decision to shoot Shaver.

Brailsford told jurors that he was terrified for the safety of officers and a woman who in the hallway. He also said he felt 'incredibly sad' for Shaver.

Sweet was asked about Brailsford’s claim that he thought Shaver was going to pull a gun.

‘I think this goes back to the Mesa Police Department's training, that this is really how they're trained,’ Sweet said.

She said her eight-year-old daughter was so distraught over the loss of her father that she attempted suicide.

‘She tried choking herself while she was at school, and told her friend that she wanted to die, so I spent all last evening with her in the hospital getting her psychiatric help,’ Sweet said.

Her daughter, Natalie, told Sweet that ‘she wanted to be with her dad.’

The detective investigating the shooting had agreed Shaver's movement was similar to reaching for a pistol, but has said it also looked like Shaver may have been reaching to pull up his loose-fitting basketball shorts that had fallen down as he was ordered to crawl toward officers.

The investigator noted he did not see anything that would have prevented officers from simply handcuffing Shaver as he was on the floor.

Brailsford's attorney Michael Piccarreta put an arm around his client after the verdict was read.

'There are no winners in this case, but Mitch Brailsford had to make a split-second decision on a situation that he was trained to recognize as someone drawing a weapon and had one second to react,' Piccarreta said.

In the video he can be Shaver can be seen sobbing and with his hands over his head as he gets to the ground and starts to inch himself forward

He then puts his hands on his head and slowly inches himself forward towards Brailsford

As he was slowly moving he pauses for a moment to reach toward the waistband of his shorts. Brailsford said he fired his AR-15 because he believed Shaver was grabbing a handgun in his waistband

The video then shows the moment that Brailsford opens fire and shoots Shaver five times in the chest. While no gun was found on Shaver's body, two pellet rifles related to his pest-control job were later found in his room

Brailsford said that he opened fire because he only had a split-second to make the decision. He told jurors that he was terrified for the safety of officers and a woman who in the hallway. He also said he felt 'incredibly sad' for Shaver

'He didn't want to harm Mr. Shaver... The circumstances that night that were presented led him to conclude that he was in danger.

'Try to make a decision in one second, life or death. It's pretty hard.'